Since becoming the CEO of T1, Joe Marsh has repeatedly appeared controversial statements. Especially in the end of 2024 – early 2025, the CEO was constantly controversial because of statements related to the deal transfer on Zeus, then the issue in the competition position in the bottom line related to Gumayusi and Smash.
With many controversial statements, this CEO faced complaints to the Korean Electronic Sports Association (Kespa). A group of fans with the community name T1gall, tried to complain to T1's CEO to Kespa, and asked to push Gumayusi from the squad and replace it with Smash.
Recently, however, Kespa has made good decisions for Joe Marsh. Accordingly, Kespa confirmed that there would be no discipline with Joe, saying that the issue of choosing a player was a problem that teams had the freedom of internal decision and LCK did not have special regulations.
Kespa also mentioned that if the team's decision was not satisfactory, that team would be responsible for that, suffering the result of losing the support of fans and the team's achievements. According to Kespa, because Joe once mentioned that he consulted with the GLV and the T1 coaching staff “not fiercely objected to this request”. Therefore, it is hard to confirm that Joe Marsh rejected the coach's decision and was forced to agree with the CEO's request.
Finally, Kespa affirmed that it was difficult to evaluate the League of Legends players only through data. In addition, League of Legends is also a long history, the evaluation of players needs to be related to qualitative analysis and should be decided by internal decision organizations. The exception will belong to very special cases, which may be related to serious issues such as the law.
Currently, T1 has just passed the LCK MSI 2025 selection round and will attend the international MSI international tournament from July 1. Immediately after this tournament, the team will immediately move to Saudi Arabia to play at Esports World Cup and then return to Korea to continue LCK 2025 round 3-5.
